Greeting cards are often sold in boxed sets. So that buyers can see what the card is like, the front of the box is usually printed with the same design as appears on the front pages of the greeting cards in the box. Some card boxes are sealed, for example in clear plastic, so that the cards inside will not be damaged by removal for inspection, accidental opening of the box, and the like.
Boxes with printed covers mimicking the cards are most used with cards that are blank inside; the buyer is of course not curious about the blank inside pages, and will buy the boxed set on the basis of the outside art. Other types are not readily sold in boxes. For example, the type of humorous greeting card with a "punch line" printed on the inside cannot be satisfactorily displayed on a box cover, and these are seldom sold in boxes. Another type of card which cannot readily be sold in boxes is a pop-up card.
Pop-up cards are usually of paperboard and may include two panels, front and back, hinged together along one fold line. They employ die-cuts, perforated lines, and often glue joins to create a "three-dimensional" effect in which portions of the inside of the card "pop up" into raised positions when the card is opened. Pop-up cards of this type often are formed of doubled sheets or panels of paperboard because the perforated and die-cut inner panels must be covered and the outer, uncut panels are needed as supports; the inner panels are glued to the outer in such a way that the inner portions pop up when the card is opened.
(The term "pop-up" as used herein does not cover separate pieces which are pasted onto places of two adjoining card sections, but rather covers popping-up portions of a card or the like which are integral with the surrounding portions of the section which do not pop up; the pop-up portions and the surrounding portions are contiguous along fold lines, and are not separate pieces.)
Boxing of pop-up greeting cards presents the same problem as does boxing of joke cards with inside indicia. Buyers want to see the pop-up before buying, but to do so they must open the box, remove a card, play with it, and then (hopefully) replace it. In this inspection process the cards inside are quite liable to be damaged.
One possible solution, not found in the known prior art, would be to paste one of the cards to be boxed onto the outside of an ordinary card box. However, this would have disadvantages:
For one, the adhesion would be poor; the corners would likely peel away and the bond fail. For another, an additional manufacturing operation is required, and the operation would most likely need to be done by hand. In addition, paperboard would be wasted since the front of the box would include three panels (paperboard layers), when only two are needed. Still another disadvantage is that two sets of cards would need to be printed because the box cover card should include indicia not found on the inside cards, such as price, brand name, and an identification (e.g., "Ten Pop-Up Cards"); since at least one of the other five sides of the card box will preferably also include indicia, three separate printing jobs would be needed.
A complete box, with a complete pop-up greeting card adhered onto it, is thus not an ideal.
If in spite the disadvantages greeting cards were printed and their back sides were firmly fastened to a pop-up greeting card box, the boxes would moreover be awkward to handle and stack. The fold-out front cover flap, which would tend to stick out at an angle from the box's front surface, would hinder stacking or re-shelving, and likely would be damaged by handling. Even if initially formed to lie flat, the cover flap's rest position would tend to work outward away from the box as the flap were repeatedly opened prior to sale.
The prior art does not solve the problem of selling pop-up greeting cards in boxed sets in such a way that potential buyers can examine the pop-up feature while at the same time avoiding damage to the boxed pop-up cards.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,104,124 to Bernard et al shows a card-like novelty item glued to the back of a cereal box. The item is a single layer of heavy paperboard folded down the middle to form two sections, and with a separate piece in the shape of a basketball hoop adhered to that section glued to the cereal box. An extended leg of the piece is adhered to the other panel. When the outer section is folded away from the box, the "hoop" is pulled by the leg to extend outward; the outer section forms a basketball court. A tab-and-slot fastener is used to hold the outer section against the inner. This item is not a true pop-up, is single layer throughout, and is a purely add-on device that is not integrated with the cereal box in any way.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,548,352 to Capo et al discloses a fast-food carton made from a blank, divided by fold lines into sections. The sections include pop-up figures on one side of the carton, which are covered by a fold-down cover when the carton is closed. The fold-down cover section is hinged to the carton along the fold line that runs along the bottom of the carton when it is assembled. The section which folds out is itself divided into two sections by a fold line which is parallel to the fold line along the carton bottom; both fold-out section lie flat on a surface when extended. The inner section is a single layer of paperboard, which lies on a surface such as a table top when the carton is used.
The Capo et al carton would be unsuitable for greeting card use, even if its container shape were changed, because the fold-out sections are not joined into a two-panel cover. Instead, they both lie flat on the table top.